Lucas launches new Chinese account

Lucas Leiva has today become the first Liverpool player to launch an official social media presence in China.

The Brazilian is one of the most active Reds players on social media right now, with over 700,000 followers on Twitter and just shy of 55,000 fans on the photo-sharing website Instagram.

He's now adding to his online presence with a brand new Sina Weibo account that will allow him to directly engage with Liverpool supporters in China.

Lucas told Liverpoolfc.com: "I'm delighted to launch my official account on Sina Weibo. I know from my own experience how many Liverpool fans we have in Asia, and the players who played out in China told me how impressed they were by the support for the club out there.

"I always enjoy interacting with supporters online and it will be an honour to be able to do that directly with our fans in China."

Liverpool enjoy a massive following in China - having played Guangdong Sunray Cave in Guangzhou during a pre-season tour of Asia in 2011 - and launched an official Sina Weibo account in August 2011, which now boasts over 450,000 followers.

In addition, the club are on the Tencent platform having launched an official account on December 14 and already have 500,000 followers.